What kind of life is there on the Buryat shore of lake Baikal? Small villages, wooden houses, boats and sledges waiting for winter time. Talkative and friendly people who never hurry and who can handle fishing

tackle much better than cellphones or computers. Most of them are Russian. How do they make their living? By hunting, fishing, logging, selling stuff to tourists and renting houses to them.

What structures does Russia have to protect its people in warlike situations, and in case of nuclear attacks? Shelters can be different, can have a different size and capacity, can be placed under some

building or stand alone. Such shelters are built under research institutes, big factories, hospitals, schools, and in the yards of Stalin-era buildings. This is what they usually look like...

Now watermelons are in season in Russia and are pretty popular as a street selling food. The shop owners sometimes build such fenced storages right in the middle of the city to lock the fruit in overnight. The mesh fences don't allow the watermelons be stolen. At least this was their purpose. However, as

reported, homeless people have found their way to the sweet fruit: they use a knife to cut pieces of the fruit the exact same size as the squares in the mesh fence, then just pull it out and eat it. This way, watermelons get those red spots all over the storage. Some more pics are inside:

In Gomel, Belarus, one fisherman caught a real piranha in a local lake. A foam plastic ball was used as bait. It was a big surprise but a woman complained that she had been bitten in the lake by something...

Ichthyologists say the fish looks like a brown pacu from the piranha family. Its length may reach a meter and more, the fish has big strong teeth that resemble human ones, it eats plants and shell-fish.

Bells have not rung here for twenty eight years. Teachers and pupils do not come anymore, exercise books remain unchecked, the latest records in the class books are dated April 26, 1986. Despite the explosion of a reactor at the Chernobyl NPP, Saturday morning of April 26 was the same as all the previous

mornings. However, teachers gave iodine to the pupils and closed all the windows tight. Some schools cancelled classes and let pupils go home, and on the following day at 4 p.m. Pripyat became empty. Forever. One of Pripyat schools, school №2, is shown right here, in this post.